Governor's Assassination Highlights Pakistan's Deepest Problems

Pakistani Governor Salman Taseer has been killed by one of his police
guards, who says he killed Taseer for his opposition to Pakistan's
controversial blasphemy law. That law, which is popular
with much of the country, has been the source of heated national debate
following the recent death sentence ordered for a Christian woman. As
the governor of Punjab province and a close ally of President Asif Ali
Zardari, Taseer was a major political force in Pakistan. Here's what
Pakistan-watchers and English-language Pakistani writers are saying
about his death and its significance.

Taseer, a successful businessman who owned a television
channel and was the publisher of a liberal English-language daily, had
been allied with rights activists, critics and several government
officials in urging the government to repeal or revise the country’s
blasphemy law. Effigies of Mr. Taseer were burned in countrywide
protests last Friday when a strike by Islamist parties, seeking to head
off any change in the law, brought Pakistan to a standstill.

In Recent Interview, Taseer Explained His Mission In a Dec. 23 interview with Pakistan Newsline, Taseer said,
"The real problem is that the government is not prepared to face
religious fanaticism head on. This also gives us a bad name in the
world." When asked about the fatwas that had been issued against him for
opposing the blasphemy law, he said, "These are a bunch of
self-appointed maulvis who no one takes seriously. The thing I find
disturbing is that if you examine the cases of the hundreds tried under
this law, you have to ask how many of them are well-to-do? How many
businessmen? Why is it that only the poor and defenceless are targeted?
How come over 50% of them are Christians when they form less than 2% of
the country’s population. This points clearly to the fact that the law
is misused to target minorities."

Worrying Signs for Pakistan's Future "The continued existence of the blasphemy laws, [Taseer's]
assassination and the varying shades of reactions to his murder," Foreign Policy's Mosharraf Zaidi writes,
" all
point to a set of very deeply embedded structural problems within the
Pakistani state and Pakistani society. ... It is a reminder that the
realities of Pakistan in the New Year are stark and intimidating. " For
example, "it is quite clear that some Pakistanis, those celebrating this
kind of horrifying assassination, are fundamentally incapable of
engaging with the rest of the rational world." He also worries about
"the irrational and frankly un-Islamic voices of religious extremism
that dominate religious discourse in the country."

Will Pakistan Finally Confront Religious Extremists? So asks Foreign Policy's Imtiaz Gul.
"Pakistani political parties must view the fact that Taseer was
murdered by his own personal guard at such close range with caution and
consider how long they can keep acquiescing to the demands of
religiopolitical parties that, on the one hand, are part of the
democratic process, but on the other, continue to defend contentious
religious laws whose potential misuse continues to threaten the lives of
Pakistanis--from the fieldworker Asia Bibi to the governor of Punjab
Salman Taseer."

On Twitter, Taseer Leaves Record of Fight Against Extremism The New York Times' Robert Mackey points out that, "through his frequently-updated Twitter feed,
Mr. Taseer was a tireless combatant in Pakistan’s online culture war."
Mackey painstakingly chronicles Taseer's papertrail of condemning
"religious fanaticism," of praising and supporting the "Christian
brothers and sisters all over Pakistan," of pledging to fight against
persecution and religious extremism "Even if I’m the last man standing."